Author: stevenattewell

Is it not possible that the “less than 40,000” you mentioned as an oddly low figure for the eponymous “Robert’s Rebellion” not represent the Rebel Army in the field as opposed to total Manpower? (we may infer that Lord Robert’s army was scattered after Ashford, that Lord Jon was obliged to leave a strong Garrison in the Vale to keep both Clans & Graftons quiet – it also seems likely that not a few lords would elect to sit on the fence when Rebel recruiters popped by).

One can come up with reasons as to why the numbers at the Battle of the Trident were what they were, but in comparison to their total manpower, the ratio is still astonishingly low. 

After all, if they don’t win the war, they’re all going to die, so that’s a pretty strong argument for putting as many men into the field as possible. 

Hi, I went back to AGoT and wondered about Ned’s guard. Would he have been within his rights to bring much more men to KL or would this be perceived as distrusting the king/taking over the city? Also, to your estimate, what would be the number of men to make a difference?

Absolutely he was within his rights to bring as many men to the capitol as he wanted – as far as we can tell, there are no limitations on the size of retinues one can bring to King’s Landing. Moreover, as Hand of the King, Ned has military authority second only to the King; he could have brought or raised as many soldiers as he wanted.

In terms of how many it would have taken to make a difference, I think at a minimum you’d need a 3:1 advantage over Cersei’s Lannister guardsmen, so about 300-350 men. 

On the question of northern military numbers, besides that Martin can’t math, isn’t it possible that it’s because the situations for Ned and Robb were different from Torrhen’s? They had to hurry to call up an army over a huge area so they could fight an unexpected war while Torrhen had more time and might not have been trying to quickly get a military advantage but show the North why he had to kneel?

Almost certainly so. 

What do you think will happen to the wildlings that the Braavosi rescued from the Lyseni slavers? On a side note, do you think that Lys is ever going to get punished for its shameless obsession with sex slavery? It seems to me that its worse than Yunkai in its involvement in enslaving people for the purposes of the sex industry.

Good question!

Sadly, unless someone decides to rescue them and bring them back to Westeros (maybe Arya?), I think the wildlings will be spending the rest of their lives working menial jobs to survive in Braavos or running afoul of Braavosi property law. 

I don’t think Lys will be emerging unscathed from the coming slave revolt, no. 

If the gates of the moon are ruled by a cadet branch of the royce , does not it mean that the arryns have no lands of their own ?

No. For one thing, the Gates of the Moon are a single castle. Not only do the Arryns have all the castles of the Eyrie, but they have extensive lands in the Vale of Arryn behind it. 

For another, up until Petyr Baelish became Lord Protector, the Royces were not hereditary rulers of anything, but rather servants of the Arryns in the same way that the Tyrells served the Gardeners or the Cassels serve the Starks. 

Tarly’s Parenting Model

Do you think Randyll Tarly got his methods for dealing with Sam from Frederick WIlliam I?

The Prussian king was a militaristic man who dealt with his scholarly son, Frederick II who was interested in things that Frederick William considered unmanly and perverse like music, books and French culture, practically the same way Tarly did with Sam. .  

Interesting question. I don’t remember my Hohenzollerns well enough to provide a concrete answer, but I’ll bet @goodqueenaly has some ideas.